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Black Clover is a weekly manga running in Weekly Shonen Jump written and drawn by Yuki Tabata, who previously did Hungry Joker. It takes place in the fictional Clover Kingdom, where everyone has some magic ability, and the greatest one of the mages is the Wizard King. Everyone gets their powers from Grimoires, spellbooks that boost natural magic talent and provide specialty spells. One's power can be determined by the number of leaves the clover on the cover of their Grimoire. For example, the Wizard King and a few other powerful mages of the kingdom have four-leaf clovers on their covers. The main character is Asta, a young orphan who wishes to become the Wizard King. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any magical power. Things change when he receives a black Grimoire, with a Five-leaf clover on the cover (the titular black clover). With this Grimoire, he can summon anti-magic swords. Good thing Asta did nothing but work out before getting his Grimoire. With his new power, Asta sets out to join a Magic Knight guild, and become the Wizard King. Characters  Asta See above.  Yuno An orphan who grew up in the same church that took in Asta. Yuno is a magic prodigy. His grimoire has four leaves, and a strong preference for wind magic.  Noelle Silver Asta's ally in the Black Bulls, the Magic Knight squad they are members of. She is of noble birth, and has incredible power but no control initially, leading her family to look down on her. Thankfully, Asta and the Bulls are helping her to gain confidence and control. It reads a lot like a cross between Naruto and Fairy Tail, especially since the magic knight squads are just like the guilds in the latter. I wouldn't call it bad, but it isn't really anything special. Most of what it's doing I've seen done better elsewhere, but it isn't outright awful. I will say though, that Japan seems to love it. Over there, it seems to have a solid spot just behind One Piece, Assassination Classroom, My Hero Academia, Shokugeki no Soma, and Haikyuu. This thread can be to praise or mock it, let's see how it goes. Availability Forgot this earlier, but the series is in the English Weekly Shonen Jump webmag, so I'm not gonna link to scan chapters. Kuroyama fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Dec 15, 2015 |
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Dec 15, 2015 00:38
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 21:41 |
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Well, unlike fairy tail this manga actually defines how magic works instead of just constantly handwaving and asspulling. So that's one thing in its favor. Another is how ladies can't get enough of Aster because he is a hardbody in a world of skinny nerds.
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Dec 15, 2015 01:15
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Serious Frolicking posted:Well, unlike fairy tail this manga actually defines how magic works instead of just constantly handwaving and asspulling. Really? It seems like characters can cast pretty much whatever suits the plot as long as it fits their element. Characters don't seem to have a known set of skills they can use, which makes combat less interesting since if the author wants the user to cast a thing and win, that's what's going to happen (as opposed to something like early/mid Naruto where everyone had their set of several skills and you knew exactly what those skills were and how they worked, and if a character does reveal a new skill it's usually clearly related to the skills they previously used). Fairy Tail shares this problem. I still find the series pretty entertaining and really like its art, but combat is really uninteresting due to what I mentioned above.
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Dec 15, 2015 01:29
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Ok, I don't know about the rest of it, but page 6 is very much my poo poo. I've always loved overgrown remnants of some incredible past. 1000 foot tall castle ruins and overgrown doombots and whatnot.
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Dec 15, 2015 03:07
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I think Black Cover is a-okay, but it'll either peter out in 50 chapters or transform into something incredible.
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Dec 15, 2015 03:28
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7c Nickel posted:Ok, I don't know about the rest of it, but page 6 is very much my poo poo. 
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Dec 15, 2015 03:36
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Serious Frolicking posted:Well, unlike fairy tail this manga actually defines how magic works instead of just constantly handwaving and asspulling. So that's one thing in its favor. Another is how ladies can't get enough of Aster because he is a hardbody in a world of skinny nerds. Nah, this is every bit the asspull magic that Fairy Tail is, Black Clover just created the vaguest of framing devices so they can pretend they have a system. Magic books with clover leaves isn't really any different than random magic user in Fairy Tail who meets someone with a higher "rank" than them. Fire user, meets Dragon Slayer, meets God Slayer. Mean while you got sheep and mirror magic just like there's random dance and smoke magic.
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Dec 15, 2015 04:24
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You know, the thing with magic books and learning spells reminds me of Zatch/Gash Bell.
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Dec 15, 2015 04:58
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I suppose it's alright but i think i've read way too much Berserk to be able to see someone get hit by a gently caress off huge sword and not get turned into giblets.
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Dec 15, 2015 05:07
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Blinks77 posted:I suppose it's alright but i think i've read way too much Berserk to be able to see someone get hit by a gently caress off huge sword and not get turned into giblets. Yeah, I don't necessarily mind it but it is weird to see Asta swing that giant sword around but only manage to club humans while effortlessly slicing through other stuff.
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Dec 15, 2015 05:42
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This series is pretty much entirely coasting along on its art. The writing is so staggeringly generic shonen I can't see how anyone likes it for the writing or characters, but I'm not a japanese teenager so eh. 
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Dec 15, 2015 05:58
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Black Clover isn't outright bad, but everything about the story has been done so much better in so many more series. And some of them aren't that good themselves.
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Dec 15, 2015 06:04
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This thread probably ain't gonna last long if we're all only ironically reading it or whatever.
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Dec 15, 2015 06:49
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In defense of the thread, and to say some positives about the current plot: A: I'm intrigued to see what happens next chapter. This week ended with the return of the creepy mad scientist girl. And this current storyline has been much better so far about not having everyone go "Asta's amazing! He's the best! Please like him!" and actually having him do things that make me like him, but I'm a sucker for guys who make great pseudo-brothers. and B: Plenty of other threads are built on hate-reading.
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Dec 15, 2015 06:59
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This series is dumb and generic as hell and indefensible and I honestly love it. It plays right to the part of me that's still 14 and goes nuts for big set-pieces and dumb powerlevel fights, just like early Naruto and Bleach did.
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Dec 15, 2015 09:07
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Gyges posted:Nah, this is every bit the asspull magic that Fairy Tail is, Black Clover just created the vaguest of framing devices so they can pretend they have a system. Magic books with clover leaves isn't really any different than random magic user in Fairy Tail who meets someone with a higher "rank" than them. Fire user, meets Dragon Slayer, meets God Slayer. Mean while you got sheep and mirror magic just like there's random dance and smoke magic. The whole thing is kinda zatch bell-ish. They get a book and then gradually unlock spells based around a particular theme. No theme is innately weak, but the whole clover thing is kind of vague. It also isn't really clear what the normal method for getting new spells is. Aster is Umagon, btw.
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Dec 15, 2015 09:18
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I wouldn't say that people read Fairy Tail entirely out of love for it either. Or Ippo anymore. 
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Dec 15, 2015 12:39
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I legit enjoyed the poo poo out of that mixer chapter a few weeks ago. Asta and Luck being complete goobers during their date and Noelle being really funny while keeping tabs on Asta was fantastic. Every now and then this series finds a way to truly shine and I do hope we get more of that as it goes on. Also we finally get a "good" guy who isn't all about Asta being the best guy ever. He downrights wants to murder the little poo poo, which is pretty great. Mulderman fucked around with this message at 13:36 on Dec 15, 2015 |
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Dec 15, 2015 13:32
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Mulderman posted:Also we finally get a "good" guy who isn't all about Asta being the best guy ever. He downrights wants to murder the little poo poo, which is pretty great. But he has a major sister complex and is overly creepy about it.
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Dec 15, 2015 15:25
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Gas
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Dec 15, 2015 15:27
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Reading this just makes me wish that Mx0 wasn't cancelled cause it did the "regular guy surrounded by mages stumbles upon anti-magic weapon" thing way better.
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Dec 15, 2015 15:31
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Bad Seafood posted:This thread probably ain't gonna last long if we're all only ironically reading it or whatever. Eej posted:Reading this just makes me wish that Mx0 wasn't cancelled cause it did the "regular guy surrounded by mages stumbles upon anti-magic weapon" thing way better. I did really enjoy the one scene where the protagonist gets kidnapped and hauled off and you think something might come of it, and the Magic King just appears and effortlessly clowns everyone in the room, before basically saying "this is the bare minimum of what you must be capable of to have my job". Pierson fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Dec 15, 2015 |
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Dec 15, 2015 17:28
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Man the scans on this are awful.
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Dec 15, 2015 17:34
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Mulderman posted:I legit enjoyed the poo poo out of that mixer chapter a few weeks ago. Seconded, that chapter was really funny and I was not at all expecting it to be. "Get it yourself, insect." This series isn't breaking any new ground but I'm not reading it ironically either, I'm genuinely enjoying it. It's just good fun.
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Dec 15, 2015 17:40
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dordreff posted:This series is dumb and generic as hell and indefensible and I honestly love it. It plays right to the part of me that's still 14 and goes nuts for big set-pieces and dumb powerlevel fights, just like early Naruto and Bleach did. I mostly agree, though I would say that early Naruto (and maybe Bleach, I don't remember it as much) definitely had better fights. Most of early-middle Naruto's fights followed a strict set of rules where both characters had a defined set of abilities that behaved in predictable ways and were used creatively to win fights (main exceptions being the parts where Naruto goes DBZ with the nine tails' chakra, though even that never let him hit too far above his weight). I just wish they would give characters more creative abilities. Right now there are characters with fire, wind, and water magic, but they all do more or less the same thing; each power can be used to generically destroy stuff, and I think at least wind and water can both make shields as well, but there doesn't seem to be anything that makes a particular damage-dealing mage significantly different from any other. Using the Naruto comparison again, you had a bunch of interesting abilities that had more potential to be creatively used. It makes things more fun because the reader can think about things like how character X's ability would fare against character Y's ability, while you can't do that in a more power-level based system like Black Clover's. If I had to pick one thing that is the biggest problem with Black Clover's battles, it would be the fact that the readers don't know all the abilities the characters have (other than the protagonist, though even he has the potential to randomly get a new sword from his grimoire). This makes fights drastically less interesting, because the author always has the option of having a character go "heh, I also have this other super badass spell!" or semi-arbitrarily making one character's spells faster/stronger than another's. The main things that make me enjoy this despite its problems are probably the art and characters. Both the backgrounds/set-pieces and character art are really good, and the artist is also really good at drawing cute girls/women. His character design reminds me of the art in Seven Deadly Sins/Kongou Banchou. I also like how the rival character shows no signs of becoming an rear end in a top hat. Eej posted:Reading this just makes me wish that Mx0 wasn't cancelled cause it did the "regular guy surrounded by mages stumbles upon anti-magic weapon" thing way better. It's hilarious that this really specific plot is basically its own sub-genre now.
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Dec 15, 2015 18:02
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Mraagvpeine posted:But he has a major sister complex and is overly creepy about it. And that's hilarious, because even the people in this manga point out he's a creepy gently caress. It's not treated like a positive character quirk. While it treads the same ground as a lot of series, I don't think there are elements too blatantly copying other people's work. It's not specific enough to be considered a rip-off.
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Dec 15, 2015 18:05
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Aster being so good with little kids because of his upbringing is  as heck when it happens. I'm an adopted kid myself and have a ton of little kids in my extended family so that kinda gets me.
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Dec 15, 2015 18:27
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I'll second enjoying the mixer chapter at least. The art is good, most of the characters are likeable enough, but the fights and worldbuilding are just not selling points, which is a little odd for a shonen battle manga.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:23
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I like Mx0 but people must not remember how goddamn creepy it got near the end with all of the fanservice.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:46
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Ytlaya posted:It's hilarious that this really specific plot is basically its own sub-genre now. It actually makes the most sense from the perspective of making something appealing to the widest audience possible. In a setting where everyone has supernatural powers, having the main character be relatively normal makes it easier to relate to them. Their unique ability is usually something related directly to increased athletic ability because readers can grasp it intuitively (he can do this because he's fast or strong). If you're not going to give your main character supernatural strength then you gotta give him something else to compensate. Mx0 is probably a bad example because no one has heard of it but Kamijou from Index fits this stereotype perfectly. Mulderman posted:While it treads the same ground as a lot of series, I don't think there are elements too blatantly copying other people's work. It's not specific enough to be considered a rip-off. This manga is insanely derivative, though. It's got the original Naruto setup of two orphans who are even colour coded the same way as Naruto and Sasuke except this version of Sasuke is a pretty cool guy and not a shitlord. It's got Fairy Tail's guilds and the main character of course ends up in the one with a bad reputation full of misfits with a penchant for property destruction. "Athletic guy who has anti-magic powers" as mentioned earlier is not a unique invention by any means. What you can give it credit for is that the author is very genre savvy. For example, making the rival character more likeable than the character he's based on (Sasuke), having the Emperor just clown on dudes instantly without the "Now it is I who is behind you!" that happens like with the Third in Naruto or Yamamoto in Bleach and skipping training montages or not having to think of ways of writing in mid-fight inspiration by just having the Grimoires unlock new spells for you when you're in trouble. The latter, of course, isn't even consistently applied because tons of people have died, or almost died, without getting some rear end-pull ability. Eej fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Dec 15, 2015 |
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Dec 15, 2015 19:54
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Juno not being a complete loving tool is pretty nice too yeah.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:59
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I'm a few chapters behind but black clover is good and the mixer chapter was really funny
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Dec 15, 2015 20:46
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Pierson posted:The RWBY thread is still going Irony? I'll have you know I authentically enjoy how bad RWBY is.
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Dec 15, 2015 21:57
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Where else have I seen an alcoholic female mage who wears underwear all the time? Hmmm. And a guy who can't use magical techniques but gets by through physical power? I think I know someone like that. Something to do with springtimes of youth. Entire series should be renamed Fairy Ninetail. The_Angry_Turtle fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Dec 15, 2015 |
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Dec 15, 2015 22:24
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Dexo posted:I like Mx0 but people must not remember how goddamn creepy it got near the end with all of the fanservice. that's because it was about to be canceled and the author thought fanservice was the way to pull out of that death spiral
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Dec 15, 2015 23:32
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Erg posted:that's because it was about to be canceled and the author thought fanservice was the way to pull out of that death spiral Yeah, I think most people view that as the desperate efforts of a desperate author.
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Dec 16, 2015 02:15
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You say that, but have you seen Mx0's mangaka's current series?
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Dec 16, 2015 02:39
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i bet the mxo artist just likes tits
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Dec 16, 2015 02:39
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Black Clover is a fun series and I like it a lot.
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Dec 16, 2015 02:55
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By No means the most deep or innovative series out there. But the characters are really nice overall. Nice 8/10 series so far.
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Dec 16, 2015 03:29
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